Film on Yellowstone’s most recently famous wolf, “The ’06 Female” (wolf 832F)-
The latest program about the Yellowstone wolves, “She Wolf,” filmed by Emmy Award winning cinematographer Bob Landis, will air this Sunday, 1/19/14, at 9 p.m. ET on the National Geographic Wild channel.
Bob Landis has been out in Yellowstone Park in all kinds of weather for most of time since wolves were restored to Yellowstone beginning in 1995. Millions have seen his films telling the stories of the wolves and their interactions with each other and the rest of the wildlife of our first national park.
There is an excellent, but violent, wolf conflict scene in a trailer on the National Geographic Channel. Watching this I am again taken how most Americans who watch these films are able, willing, excited to see nature in the raw, while so many anti-wolf “tough guys” blanch when confronted with a bit of outdoors reality.
Of this film, Kathie Lynch writes, “Yellowstone’s most recently famous wolf, “The ’06 Female” (“’06″/832F) won the hearts of wolf watchers from around the world as they followed her incredible life in the wild for six years. As the alpha female of the Lamar Canyon pack, she raised three litters of pups with mate 755M. She amazed watchers and gained fame as an incredible hunter able to kill an elk by herself. After a Wyoming wolf hunter’s bullet ended her life in December 2012, her pack fragmented, illustrating the importance of each individual to a wolf pack’s social structure. Today, just one of her daughters remains in Yellowstone’s famed Lamar Valley, but “’06’s” legacy lives on.”
Comments
Bob has captured some amazing footage, some of it is hard to watch, but he captured all the trials and tribulations of being a wolf. It was about survival, not wanton killing. The dynamic of the Lamar Canyon pack is very different since the loss of 06/832F and the loss of other wolves from Yellowstone is very noticeable as well. The big bad Mollies pack is basically nonexistent. The alpha of the Lamar pack lost his mate, 06, then the following year lost the female he might have begun another family with.
Bob Landis is a very dedicated, caring, talented man and his films have always been very well done.
Not surprised at all that there was such a strong female leader after following the wolf dynamics at the International Wolf Center’s exhibit pack. It sure seems like it’s the ‘ladies’ of that pack that keep the dudes in line. Strong female leaders in the animal world are not unheard of. The true leader of a horse herd is a female, not the stallion. It’s the head mare that decides some of the most important issues concerning the herd’s survival.
I don’t get this channel so I’ll have to catch it some other way.
I’ll look forward to watching!
I just watched the trailer. I will try to watch the entire program this Sunday.
In watching the trailer It looks like most of the wolves are radio collared. It is time to get these intrusive, ugly, monstrosities off of Yellowstone wolves.
A Collared Wolf Is A Dead Wolf.
Hunters have obtained scanners which allow them to find and kill any collared wolf and its’ pack mates as soon as they leave Yellowstone.
Rick McIntyre and his collar buying wolf watchers have so irritated the residents of communities surrounding
Yellowstone(as well as many who reside and work in the park), that many of the locals take special delight in killing Yellowstone wolves as soon as they cross outside of the park boundaries. They even help it along by using predator calls, imitating the cry of injured wolf pups, to lure the collared wolves, that they have located with their scanners, out of the park.
The number of wolves collared in Yellowstone since the study began sdyears ago is reaching the 1,000 mark. Anything significant about wolves has long since been discovered.
The major reason for the collars today is so that Rick and his followers can find the collared wolves and radio their location to the Yellowstone Association. The Association in turn radios the drivers of their white buses and sends them to view the wolves. Many other tour guides listen in with their scanners and rush with their customers to see the wolves. The resulting crowds intimidate the wolves and,along with the harassment by research helcopters and yellow super cub airplanes, help push the wolves out of Yellowstone where they immediately become targets for the local wolf haters.
I will say it again: A Collared Wolf Is A Dead Wolf!!!!
What photographer Larry really means to say is “A Photo Of A Collared Wolf Is Far Less Likely To Make Money For Me”.
Wendy
This is a tired argument. I for one appreciate Larry’s opinion on this subject and concur. I’m certain he has many excellent captures of animals without collars. His experience in the field speaks volumes to many here, including myself.
Larry,
Your business aside, I whole heartedly agree with you. If for no other reason, we do not want judas wolves.
I guess I’m not familiar with this “scanner” technology. Based on what I’ve seen in field work, one still has to know the frequencies and program them in to a receiver to be able to locate a radio collar.
And of course, one still has to be close enough to the collar to actually pick it up with the receiver.
But, who knows? Maybe some evil genius has actually made a device that simply scans through a universe of potential frequencies from long range and allows people who don’t actually have the specific frequencies of target animals to find them?
Or, maybe I’m just behind the times and this technology is commercially available? People keep telling me that Cabela’s sells such a thing. Funny, I visited four different Cabela’s stores in January and they all played dumb about the existence of such a thing. They DID show me a bunch of radio collars for hunting dogs (bird dogs, hounds, other breeds that cover the ground), but they wouldn’t fess up to stocking a device that reveals unknown telemetry frequencies.
Maybe there’s a secret handshake? I made sure I didn’t wear any Patagonia gear when I asked, but they may have made me for a treehugger nonetheless. They probably have clandestine retina-scanning sensors at the front door and figured out who I was . . .
Or maybe . . . maybe the terrain of the northern range makes it fairly predictable as to where wolves will step over the Park boundary? We know they’re not real likely to be up on Republic Pass or on top of Cutoff Mountain in the winter. And maybe Park wolves are (were — they’re going to be learning fast) just a little bit unwary around people.
But, hey, if your version creates another chance to bash Rick McIntyre, then that one must suit your purposes the best.
Scholars have written entire books on the long-standing cultural conflict over wolves — going back at least as far as Barry Lopez’s “Of Wolves and Men.” You could have saved them so much trouble by just letting them know that it’s all Rick McIntyre’s fault! Glad we got that cleared up.
The number of collars in Yellowstone is now somewhere around 300 +/-. Even more significant things are being discovered about wolves because of the Yellowstone wolves and these collars and the incredible professionalism of Smith and his staff. If you want the truth go to the International Wolf Center. wolf.org
Correction — the number of collars put on since introduction is around 900 +/-.
This does not mean there are “NOW” that many collars in YNP.
Second correction. That number is/was 300+/-. All the initial reintroduced wolves were given collars and consecutively numbered starting with #1.
After this pups born to these first collar pioneers were given numbers whether they were collared or not. Subsequently the collar numbers reflected this, not the actual number of collars used. Collar numbers were also shared with the state of Wyoming. SO..
the number of collars used/installed in Yellowstone since the days of 1995 is 300+/-.
Doesn’t Larry do photos of other animals besides wolves ? Are coyotes, bears, foxes,or other animals collared as much ?I guess he makes a living from it just as the outfitters want to make a living by having abundant and easy to find elk for their clients to kill.
I’ve been to Wolf week twice, going again this March. The guides go where they think the wolves might be, they don’t follow Rick around like blind puppies. It is nice to run into Rick occasionally so he can explain what’s going on, but if you want to have wolves in the northern Rockies you’d best let the Association do its job. It’s great PR for the wolves. Also from what I can see there is still a lot to learn. I agree that the collars makes them too easy track by the morons who hate wolves.
“Wolves Belong”
Early one winter morning I was on the side of the road in the Little America area of Yellowstone watching four members of the Slough pack. A car pulled up, and man walked over and ask if he could join me. I said of course. He went back to his car for what I assumed was a spotting scope only to return with the largest movie camera I’d ever been around. It of course was Bob Landis, who I knew of but never had met or seen. And he was as gracious as could be, allowing me to look thru his camera lens and telling me a few stories of his filming in the park. something I’ll never forget and look forward to this new show.
Landis’ last film for NG was available to stream on the web site shortly after it aired. I do not know if that will be the case this time or not.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/wild/episodes/she-wolf/
“In this image-driven age, wildlife filmmakers carry a heavy responsibility. They can influence how we think and behave when we’re in nature. They can even influence how we raise our kids, how we vote and volunteer in our communities, as well as the future of our wildlands and wildlife. If the stories they create are misleading or false in some way, viewers will misunderstand the issues and react in inappropriate ways. People who consume a heavy diet of wildlife films filled with staged violence and aggression, for example, are likely to think about nature as a circus or a freak show. They certainly won’t form the same positive connections to the natural world as people who watch more thoughtful, authentic, and conservation-oriented films.” – Chris Palmer
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/conservation?page=1
“People who consume a heavy diet of wildlife films filled with staged violence and aggression, for example, are likely to think about nature as a circus or a freak show.”
I think we’re seeing this a lot on Animal Planet, and possibly Discovery Channel. We had someone local (Oklahoma) that got a show on Animal Planet, ‘The Skunk Whisperer’. I think he lasted 6 episodes on AP. Ned is super at what he does; he uses non-lethal methods and is an upstanding man of high character. His standards didn’t click with AP’s staged scenes. AP even hired a guy to play a role as one of Ned’s employees and it was a guy Ned had fired from his business. Needless to say, it has been a bad episode for Ned, who had been led to believe his show would be more educational.
With the news that came out last week about the staged episodes, and animal abuse on the show, ‘Call of the Wildman’ it’s evident these reality animal shows are everything but reality. To boot, AP had run a show about rattlesnake round-ups. I didn’t watch any of them, but I know it sent a bunch of the herp guys here in Oklahoma into fits. We still have a big problem here with There are several small towns with a festival based on the round-up. They even will take a rattlesnake and sew its mouth shut. This is so he can be used for a photo prop. Of course, they leave it in the sun all day with no water. This is a blatant disregard for the state’s animal cruelty laws but the DA in that county won’t file charges. Our stinking tea party governor and the state AG won’t make a move either since those small towns make money off of those festivals.
Sorry to go on such a rant with this long post.
We all rant on occasion Yvette 🙂
If there are businesses sponsoring these events and you frequent their establishments, stop doing business with them and let them know you don’t condone the senseless killing of wildlife.
Nancy great post
great show with great footage
What an amazing wolf she was! At least her genes will live on through her offspring. It said 12 Yellowstone wolves were shot in six months once hunting was commenced. I hope Middle Grey will stay away from half-wit humans with a gun. I’m still hoping for a buffer zone around the park.
that’s for sure there is some sinister conspiracy going on – I mean, 2 recent books by wolf biologists who stress the importance of individual wolves (never mind the Holy Scripture about ‘population matter; individuals – don’t’) and now this documentary …
1) “Among Wolves: Gordon Haber’s Insights into Alaska’s Most Misunderstood Animal”
2) “Wild Wolves We Have Known” edited by Richard P. Thiel, Allison C. Thiel and Marianne Strozewski
3) “She Wolf” documentary by Bob Landis
“After a Wyoming wolf hunter’s bullet ended her life in December 2012, her pack fragmented, illustrating the importance of each individual to a wolf pack’s social structure. ”
Mareks thanks for posting information about Haber, Lndis, Thiel et al…… why do humans feel so much empathy when the breadwinner of a family or a mother or child dies in a family, yet not an ounce of consideration is given when writing “management ” rules that allow killing individuals belonging in close knit canid family units. Supreme hypocrisy and ignorance
Louise, it is quite possible to feel empathy for individual animals and not feel the need to enact special laws/policies to protect them.
l do hope this will be released as a dvd, we are in Australia but had the hounour of seeing 06 and her pack in Yellowstone in 2011, including her pups that year and 754, would love to see this, by the way l think you are all awesome
Most of Bob Landis’ documentaries are eventually marketed as DVDs and are usually available through NatGeo and many are also available through the National Parks’ Associations (they are nonprofits and something like 80% of their income goes back into the parks) like Yellowstone Association in their bookstores located inside National Parks. I know you can order some much of what they have in stock online as well. I’m sure NatGeo will probably have some sort of availability too.
Bob Landis is a treasure.
I have to say, however, this “She Wolf”, the fourth in the series of National Geographic documentaries chronicling the wolves return to Yellowstone, is the weakest of the bunch. The videography is still amazing. But Bob Landis doesn’t write the script, and this is the fatal weakness. All of the National Geographic documentaries are filled with anthropomorphisms, questionable drama (the music is so tiring), suspect story-telling. I have heard Bob say that he doesn’t write the script, so don’t blame him. Blame National Geographic which has increasingly become a marketing machine that panders without any shame.
Yes, and I think we see the result of this and other media that ascribe human characteristics to animals. People who like the wolves, the elk, the badgers, or whatever focus on the individuals and forget, or at least ignore the population. Perhaps one example is the recent controversy over putting down “Marcus” the superfluous giraffe — he was or is (still alive?) superfluous in terms of his genetic material in a situation where there are not enough resources to care for large numbers of giraffes in zoos.
Interesting. The first time I met Mr. Landis I had a chat with him about this very topic, after seeing his first Yellowstone wolf film that was marketed by NatGeo. He told me he doesn’t write the scripts nor does he suggest any music etc.
I was not thrilled with the way the natural traits of the wolves were portrayed, whenever the wolves were stalking or hunting, there was some Native American rattles and flute music intended to instill fear or something. Whenever they wolves were playing or pups were romping about the music was happy, light, child-friendly stuff. I found it disturbing.
I guess they still do that, too bad, detracts from their educational credibility and does lend itself to the true talents and efforts of Mr. Landis’ work. I think the films would be more valuable without the dumbing-down, stereotyping scripts and music. Sure there should be a script but the text needs some serious redirect.
CORRECTION:
does lend itself
Meant to say: Does NOT lend itself
Ooops.